@lollerisms.bsky.social
They were also conscripting every male person between 15 and 60 and every female person between 17 and 40 to be armed with bamboo spears and suicide bombs for a final charge against the Americans. *Their own* propaganda described it as an attempt to get everyone killed!
November 15, 2025 at 6:21 AM
They were also conscripting every male person between 15 and 60 and every female person between 17 and 40 to be armed with bamboo spears and suicide bombs for a final charge against the Americans. *Their own* propaganda described it as an attempt to get everyone killed!
Oh yeah 100%, zero military utility to doing so and it actively hindered the war effort by impeding American farming, and it was also incredibly racist because of course it was. Obviously indefensible on any grounds.
November 15, 2025 at 6:13 AM
Oh yeah 100%, zero military utility to doing so and it actively hindered the war effort by impeding American farming, and it was also incredibly racist because of course it was. Obviously indefensible on any grounds.
I disagree with them, obviously, if only because the US was prepared to kill functionally the entire population of Japan to end the war if needed, but it easy to read or hear about how many escaped punishment or the latest bit of LDP apologia and fall into a very dark place.
November 15, 2025 at 6:09 AM
I disagree with them, obviously, if only because the US was prepared to kill functionally the entire population of Japan to end the war if needed, but it easy to read or hear about how many escaped punishment or the latest bit of LDP apologia and fall into a very dark place.
I have the advantage of being far away from things now in both time and distance, but my grandparents all lived through that occupation, and in their eyes there was no evil the US could inflict upon Japan that would approach what Japan had done in China.
November 15, 2025 at 6:05 AM
I have the advantage of being far away from things now in both time and distance, but my grandparents all lived through that occupation, and in their eyes there was no evil the US could inflict upon Japan that would approach what Japan had done in China.
Stalin definitely does it, Hitler was already planning on doing worse, Churchill hits the button, Truman did it in OTL, Koga, Yamamoto, and Nagano absolutely do it, and Chiang tries to see if he can press the button more than once after trying to get the Americans to send more aid.
November 15, 2025 at 5:58 AM
Stalin definitely does it, Hitler was already planning on doing worse, Churchill hits the button, Truman did it in OTL, Koga, Yamamoto, and Nagano absolutely do it, and Chiang tries to see if he can press the button more than once after trying to get the Americans to send more aid.
It's also one that values the lives of Japanese civilians far more than the people their military butchered en masse, or slaughtered by famine, or enslaved in military brothels, and I cannot help but notice that even on the left the "honorary Aryans" are the ones who get a pass.
November 15, 2025 at 5:48 AM
It's also one that values the lives of Japanese civilians far more than the people their military butchered en masse, or slaughtered by famine, or enslaved in military brothels, and I cannot help but notice that even on the left the "honorary Aryans" are the ones who get a pass.
So the Japanese were far less damned when they killed the same number of Chinese civilians with bullets, blades, torture, fire and rape, because they didn't have the audacity to use a nuclear bomb? They didn't go beyond simple warfare because when they killed children they did it with knives?
November 15, 2025 at 5:46 AM
So the Japanese were far less damned when they killed the same number of Chinese civilians with bullets, blades, torture, fire and rape, because they didn't have the audacity to use a nuclear bomb? They didn't go beyond simple warfare because when they killed children they did it with knives?
The Japanese killed somewhere between 19 and 30 million civilians over the course of WW2, almost all with limited military utility, certainly far less utility than the ports at Nagasaki or the military industry in Hiroshima, but for whatever reason that never gets counted because it was slower.
November 15, 2025 at 5:42 AM
The Japanese killed somewhere between 19 and 30 million civilians over the course of WW2, almost all with limited military utility, certainly far less utility than the ports at Nagasaki or the military industry in Hiroshima, but for whatever reason that never gets counted because it was slower.
There are many terrible things that are war crimes, and many terrible things that are *not* and I think it's worth noting that distinction because blurring the line makes it easier for one to slip into being the other.
November 15, 2025 at 5:34 AM
There are many terrible things that are war crimes, and many terrible things that are *not* and I think it's worth noting that distinction because blurring the line makes it easier for one to slip into being the other.
I'd disagree because a war crime is something specifically outlawed by treaty and, unfortunately, neither aerial bombing nor nuclear weapons were restricted at the time. Civilian deaths, similarly, are not always war crimes, which more serves to highlight the limitations of the label.
November 15, 2025 at 5:34 AM
I'd disagree because a war crime is something specifically outlawed by treaty and, unfortunately, neither aerial bombing nor nuclear weapons were restricted at the time. Civilian deaths, similarly, are not always war crimes, which more serves to highlight the limitations of the label.
Also, sticking my head in here because this is something I see quite frequently, Japan still held non-Home Islands territories at the end of the war! They still had large chunks of China, all of Korea, Thailand, Indochina, Borneo, etc and were creating famines by occupation! Time was of the essence!
November 15, 2025 at 5:26 AM
Also, sticking my head in here because this is something I see quite frequently, Japan still held non-Home Islands territories at the end of the war! They still had large chunks of China, all of Korea, Thailand, Indochina, Borneo, etc and were creating famines by occupation! Time was of the essence!
I think the Downfall plan was serious insofar as it did exist and could be implemented but the stomach to lose another quarter million to million troops instead of "just" waiting the Japanese out through starvation and firebombing wasn't there.
November 15, 2025 at 5:22 AM
I think the Downfall plan was serious insofar as it did exist and could be implemented but the stomach to lose another quarter million to million troops instead of "just" waiting the Japanese out through starvation and firebombing wasn't there.
The Japanese, meanwhile, were rounding up schoolkids and handing them bamboo spears and suicide bombs in order to pit them against either the best or second best military on the planet which was already planning on paving the way to Tokyo with everything up to and including atomic bombs.
November 15, 2025 at 5:21 AM
The Japanese, meanwhile, were rounding up schoolkids and handing them bamboo spears and suicide bombs in order to pit them against either the best or second best military on the planet which was already planning on paving the way to Tokyo with everything up to and including atomic bombs.
Also, and I've seen this cited a lot, US predictions for losses were all over the place with the low estimates being a few hundred thousand American dead and about two to three times that injured to half a million to a million dead at the high end.
November 15, 2025 at 5:18 AM
Also, and I've seen this cited a lot, US predictions for losses were all over the place with the low estimates being a few hundred thousand American dead and about two to three times that injured to half a million to a million dead at the high end.
Total war, unfortunately, means the dedication of the whole of society to the war effort, which means that every component, from the guy at the front with a gun, to the person moving ammo behind the lines, to the person making the ammo to the person feeding all of these, is part of the war.
November 15, 2025 at 5:16 AM
Total war, unfortunately, means the dedication of the whole of society to the war effort, which means that every component, from the guy at the front with a gun, to the person moving ammo behind the lines, to the person making the ammo to the person feeding all of these, is part of the war.
Is it okay to bomb a munitions plant because there are civilian workers inside? Is it okay to bomb *near* a munitions plant? Is it okay to bomb the chemical plant that feeds the munitions plant? Is it okay to bomb the munitions workers when they're *not* in the munitions plant?
November 15, 2025 at 5:15 AM
Is it okay to bomb a munitions plant because there are civilian workers inside? Is it okay to bomb *near* a munitions plant? Is it okay to bomb the chemical plant that feeds the munitions plant? Is it okay to bomb the munitions workers when they're *not* in the munitions plant?
Also George Conway somewhat notably no longer endorses Trump.
November 14, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Also George Conway somewhat notably no longer endorses Trump.
The US also had a fully fledged heavy bomber program capable of delivering said nukes which does limit the field but otherwise yes.
November 14, 2025 at 6:50 PM
The US also had a fully fledged heavy bomber program capable of delivering said nukes which does limit the field but otherwise yes.
Also water is a liquid which reduces local heating because convection, lets you pump it around for heat exchange, and is reasonably cheap as far as these things go so you can substitute maas for efficiency.
November 14, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Also water is a liquid which reduces local heating because convection, lets you pump it around for heat exchange, and is reasonably cheap as far as these things go so you can substitute maas for efficiency.
I have seen this take more than once in left circles and it causes me actual physical pain to see leftists regurgitating actual imperial propaganda because cmon yall the US did not and does not have a monopoly on evil.
November 14, 2025 at 5:42 PM
I have seen this take more than once in left circles and it causes me actual physical pain to see leftists regurgitating actual imperial propaganda because cmon yall the US did not and does not have a monopoly on evil.
But Dragon have you considered the maybe the Japanese really *were* anti-imperialists establishing a sphere of mutual cooperation against the colonizing west ~~please ignore korea and china~~?
November 14, 2025 at 5:41 PM
But Dragon have you considered the maybe the Japanese really *were* anti-imperialists establishing a sphere of mutual cooperation against the colonizing west ~~please ignore korea and china~~?
If I'm already subbed is there a way to use this promo or is it for new subs only?
November 12, 2025 at 5:38 PM
If I'm already subbed is there a way to use this promo or is it for new subs only?
Also the main problem is that the dems and repubs siphon off everyone more interested in winning than ideological purity because there are two parties with a chance in anything besides local elections and it sure as hell isn't the Greens or the PSL or whoever else.
November 10, 2025 at 7:58 PM
Also the main problem is that the dems and repubs siphon off everyone more interested in winning than ideological purity because there are two parties with a chance in anything besides local elections and it sure as hell isn't the Greens or the PSL or whoever else.
The first KKK didn't succeed in reviving the South so according to this poster they weren't actually racists? The argument completely dissolves under any scrutiny like wtaf are they saying.
November 10, 2025 at 7:53 PM
The first KKK didn't succeed in reviving the South so according to this poster they weren't actually racists? The argument completely dissolves under any scrutiny like wtaf are they saying.